Valery Alekseevich Legassov (September 1, 1936, Tula, RSFSR, USSR - April 26, 1988, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR) was a Soviet inorganic chemist. He was a doctor of chemical sciences, professor. Full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1981). He was a member of the government commission to investigate the causes and to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, for which he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of USSR in 1996.

He made a number of crucial decisions to prevent further explosions and informed the USSR government about the situation in the accident zone. It was he who suggested the composition of the mixture (boron and sand) with which the burning reactor was filled and thanks to which the consequences of the accident were less than they could have been.